Jhumpura: Shortage of drinking water has multiplied the woes of villagers in tribal-dominated Keonjhar district. The inertia of civic body officials is worsening the situation, the residents alleged.
The tribal inhabitants of Jhumpura block here are forced to drink polluted water from canals and ponds.
The villagers have alleged that a large number of tubewells here have become defunct and the authorities are not paying scant attention to repair those.
According to the administration, there are 22 panchayats and 154 villages in this block out of which 150 are revenue villages. About 1.14 lakh people reside in these villages. There are 1585 tubewells in the block but a large number of them remain defunct. The administration does not even have any data pertaining to the number of tubewells in order and the number of tubewells that need repair.
As many as 31 small pipeline projects had been launched here to provide drinking water to 50, 000 residents. The residents of Khendara, Nahbeda and Asuki villages are facing difficulties as the pipeline projects in these places remain nonfunctional.
A tender was floated to set up 152 solar-based tubewell at Basantpur, Nayagarh, Malda and Kutugaon panchayat but only 76 tubewells have been set up in the past two years, said an official data.
When asked, engineers Mohan Singh and Subhasmita Khamari said, “The contractors have failed to repair dysfunctional tubewells and complete the work on time. We will ensure that the drinking water resources are streamlined at the earliest.”
PNN